Voting machine vendor estimates up to $95M cost

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The company chosen by Louisiana to replace thousands of state voting machines estimates the work could cost up to $95 million, significantly larger than prior estimates.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin's office says Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems provided that estimate during the bidding process. Previous estimates had been around $60 million.

Louisiana's state procurement office announced Thursday that Dominion Voting Systems was the winning vendor.

Competing vendor Election Systems and Software raised allegations of impropriety in the bid process. The company says the secretary of state's office issued voting machine standards only Dominion could meet.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said release of those standards was a mistake, and he withdrew them. He said in a statement Thursday he's confident the process "has been fair and equitable for all bidders."